Urgent appeal for child facing deportation

The Young Center is the child advocate for a 16-year-old girl who fled Honduras with her mother after surviving physical and sexual abuse. They made it to the U.S. border last year, but CBP officials threw them into the “Remain in Mexico” program rather than admit them while they sought asylum. Mother and daughter lived in a tent on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico while they waited for their turn to appear in a tent court. They couldn’t find an attorney and eventually went to tent court unrepresented. They were denied asylum. While they considered next steps, conditions in Matamoros deteriorated and the teenager returned to the border in a final, desperate attempt to ask for protection. Because her mother remained behind in the refugee camp, the teenager was designated as an unaccompanied child and placed in federal custody.

Tonight, DHS will try to deport her back to her home country. They will pick her up from a government shelter after midnight, and put her on an early morning flight. DHS will do this even though the child has appealed her asylum case to the Board of Immigration Appeals, now that she has an immigration attorney. Her immigration counsel found even more attorneys to help—a team at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, who filed a case in federal court seeking to protect the child. That case won’t be heard until May 6, 2020, which may explain why DHS has rushed to put her on a plane tomorrow morning.

If this child is flown to Honduras, she faces permanent separation from her mother, who remains trapped in Mexico. She could be exposed to the coronavirus on a flight full of unrelated adults. Worst of all, she will be returned to her the very people who threatened her life. Please contact the DHS Field Office in Harlingen TONIGHT at 956.389.7860 or 956.389.7800 and demand that ICE allow the child’s case to proceed in court. Demand that ICE stop her Friday morning deportation. Shout out to your member of Congress on Twitter and ask them to make the same call, and share this terrific piece from Adolfo Flores at BuzzFeed News.

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